The rapid dragon palletized weapon
system is in essence palletized cruise
missiles stored in racks aboard cargo
and transport planes.
The air force tested the rapid dragon
concept earlier this month at eglin air
force base in the western florida
panhandle. The test involved loading a
cruise missile flight test vehicle and
several dummy missiles aboard a pallet
rigged with a parachute.
Air dropping
palletized cargoes is not new to the air
force, which literally rolls them out the
back of the plane via the cargo ramp, once the pallet exits the plane a
parachute deploys and the pallet floats
gently to earth.
Rapid dragon is different from the
standard pallet drop. As the pallet
descends it orients its missile cargo
nose down, the missiles fall out of their
containers pointing straight down, the
descent allows the missile's turbine
engines to spin up the wings to deploy
and the missile to proceed to the target.
Rapid dragon is designed to fit in a
six-pack palette for smaller C-130J super hercules transport planes and a
9-pack for larger, longer-range C-17
globemaster 3s. AC 130J has a cargo
section length of 41 feet well the
pallet.
In addition to a parachute each pallet
is equipped with a control module that
feeds target data to the missiles. Aircrews will be able to load target
data into planes mid-flight allowing for
changes in plans as the battle rages on.
The main missile envisioned for rapid
dragon is the am 158 Joint Air to Surface Standoff Munition Extended Range (JASSMR). JASSMR is a stealthy land attack
cruise missile capable of penetrating
defended airspace, flying around enemy
defenses to strike targets with a 1000
pound WDU-42B penetrating warhead. the
missile has a range of 621 miles.
Rapid
dragon turns air force transports into
bombers but the transformation isn't
perfect. transport planes are not
stealthy and are vulnerable to
surface-to-air missiles and enemy
fighters. JASSMR's long range will
allow the transports to launch their
missiles at a considerable distance from
enemy defenses helping ensure the
plane's survival.
The program is part of a radical plan by
the air force to give long-range cargo
and transport aircraft at potent
defensive capability. If successful, it
could allow battlefield commanders to
quickly get a large number of long-range
standoff munitions in the air at short notice.
Though transport aircraft
typically lack serious offensive, systems
rapid dragon seeks to improve their lack
of firepower especially relevant to
hypothetical battle space, say one
defined by long distances like the
indo-pacific and in contrast to earlier
tests. This most recent test used a live
munition rather than a mass simulator.
The air force research laboratory
explained that during the december live
fire test, an air force special
operations command flight crew received
new targeting data while in flight, which
was then routed to the cruise missile
flight test vehicle.
The aircraft
agnostic battle management system's
in-flight received an upload of the new
targeting data into the cruise missile
flight test vehicle was a first-time
achievement with a live cruise missile.
These lethal devices were called rapid
dragon carts. today the rapid dragon
concept is changing the game again this
time as an airborne delivery system for US air force weapons and like its
namesake these palletized munitions
promised to unleash mighty salvos on
moss on distant adversaries.
The air force validated the rapid dragon
palletized mentioned concept over five
flights in three different kinds of
aircraft and further testing is
anticipated in spring of 2022 on other
aircraft types.
Interestingly, the rapid dragon program
name is derived from a thousand-year-old
chinese military designed crossbow
catapult that launched multiple crossbow
bolts with a pull of a single trigger, raining destruction down on armies from
tremendous ranges the air force
statement explains.